Stairs and railings

[dzatto]

Okay, I know about the 2 additional display configs for stairs. Intermediate level and top level. I use them and they work great. Here's the problem. The railing doesn't have the same extra 2 display configs. Is there a way to create them manually. I'm pretty sure there is, I just don't know how.

I have a stair and in the intermediate level display, I want to show the outline above the cutplane. Problem is the handrail wants to show up. If I turn off the handrail, then in my top level drawing the handrail is gone there also because I can only do it in plan config. I hope that makes sense to you guys. So why would you have 2 extra displays for your stairs, but not for handrails that are attached to stairs? Gotta love Adesk.

[david_peterson]

Did you try to apply any type of an override for the display confing in that view? Just a thought.

[dzatto]

Did you try to apply any type of an override for the display confing in that view? Just a thought.

Yep. That's how I do my stairs. The problem is, the only choices I have for the railing are low, medium and high detail. I keep everything medium. I guess I could just redo the high or low detail for the railing style, but it should have the extra configs like the stairs since it's a stair component, right? Oh well.

[david_peterson]

Ok, I see. They added additional detail levels for the OOTB stairs, but not the hand rail. My guess, the guys at Adesk ran out of time.

[dzatto]

Ok, I see. They added additional detail levels for the OOTB stairs, but not the hand rail. My guess, the guys at Adesk ran out of time.

exxxxxactly.

[dkoch]

Okay, I know about the 2 additional display configs for stairs. Intermediate level and top level. I use them and they work great. Here's the problem. The railing doesn't have the same extra 2 display configs. Is there a way to create them manually. I'm pretty sure there is, I just don't know how.

I have a stair and in the intermediate level display, I want to show the outline above the cutplane. Problem is the handrail wants to show up. If I turn off the handrail, then in my top level drawing the handrail is gone there also because I can only do it in plan config. I hope that makes sense to you guys. So why would you have 2 extra displays for your stairs, but not for handrails that are attached to stairs? Gotta love Adesk.

So roll your own. You can not expect Autodesk to do all of your work for you. Make two copies of the appropriate Railing Display Representation (say, for example, Medium Detail, if that has the components you need) and call them Medium Detail - Intermediate Level and Medium Detail - Top Level (or whatever you want to call them). Make your display settings as needed, then add them to an exsting Display Representation Set -OR- a copy of an existing Display Representation Set if you need to use the original as is in certain circumstances. If you made a copy, then you will also want to make a copy of an existing Display Configuration and swap in the new Display Representation Set.

[dzatto]

I tried it but couldn't figure it out correctly. I can create a display config, and a set, but how do I link that to the object. It won't let me add anything there. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. I'll need to spend some time on it today.

[dkoch]

I tried it but couldn't figure it out correctly. I can create a display config, and a set, but how do I link that to the object. It won't let me add anything there. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. I'll need to spend some time on it today.

In Display Manager, expand the Representations by Object folder in the left pane, under the drawing in which you want to make the changes. Scroll down, if necessary, to find the Railing object and select that. In the right pane, you will see a matrix showing the currently available Display Representations for Railings, each as a row, with the columns being the Display Representation Sets that are defined in the drawing. A check mark appears when the Display Representation of a particular row is turned on in the Display Representation Set of a particular column. This is where you tie the Display Settings to a specific object.

Now that I am actually looking at the available Display Representations for Railings (in 200, it would appear that you would want to look at the components available in the Plan, Plan High Detail and Plan Low Detail and decide which to use as the basis of your new Display Representations. If there is no substantial difference, go with whatever is active for your "regular" display settings for plan views. (If you need to show things at different scales and show more detail at larger scales, you may need to repeat the process to accommodate both a "Plan" and "Plan High Detail" version of your new Display Representations.)

Right click on the chosen Display Representation and choose Duplicate from the context menu. Rename the duplicated Display Representation as desired. (Make another duplicate if you want to support both "Intermediate Level" and "Top Level". Edit the drawing default display settings so that the desired components are turned on (and others off) and given the desired layer, color, linetype, etc. For example, if you are trying to show "railings above", you probably want a different linetype (with some sort of dashing) and possibly want a thinner lineweight when plotted (which could mean setting a different color, assigning a different named plot style or explicitly assigning a thinner lineweight, depending upon what type of plot styles you use and whether lineweights are assigned in the plot style or in the drawing).

With the new Display Representations for Railings in place, you can activate them in the appropriate Display Representation Set(s) and have those Set(s) active in the appropriate Display Configuration(s).

[dzatto]

Wow, that's a mouth full.
I can't duplicate the display rep, only copy and paste. Once I do that, I can't rename it for some reason. Also, on the display rep matrix, I see where I check the boxes, but some display reps aren't options for railings. Is there a way to just make the displays for stairs (top and intermediate) also work for railings? What controls what reps are available for what objects?

[dkoch]

Wow, that's a mouth full.
I can't duplicate the display rep, only copy and paste. Once I do that, I can't rename it for some reason. Also, on the display rep matrix, I see where I check the boxes, but some display reps aren't options for railings. Is there a way to just make the displays for stairs (top and intermediate) also work for railings? What controls what reps are available for what objects?

If you right click in the left (tree) pane, then copy/paste are your only choices. If you select the Railing item in the left pane, and right click on the Display Representation in the right pane, you get Duplicate (a combined copy/paste) and well as Delete. You can not delete Autodesk required Display Representations, only ones you create (or that Autodesk created but did not hard code into the program, if any are like that?).

You can not create a Display Representation from scratch. You can not add your own components to a Display Representation (I am not counting the ability to add custom display blocks here). All you can do is find an existing Display Representation that has the needed components for what you want to do and copy that. No worries if there are more components than you need - just turn them off. You will have greater success if you repurpose a similar Display Representation. For example, if your new one will be used for a top view, then start with one of Autodesk's that is meant for a plan view. If your new one will be used in a "3D" or Model view, start with one of Autodesk's that is meant for that.

Railings and Stairs are two separate objects. You can not add railing components to a stair Display Representation, so you can not have a Stair Representation control a Railing display.

The Representations by Object folder in Display Manager controls what Display Representations are available for each object type. Display Representation Sets are simply a collection of Display Representations for various object types that are meant to be seen together, with a particular view direction in mind. Display Representation Sets are then assigned to particular view directions in a Display Configuration.

The user chooses a specific Display Configuration and view direction, and the assigned Display Representation Set is activated. Objects display (or do not display) according to the Display Representations that are turned on within the active set. (And as modified by any style-level or object-level overrides.)

I really need to find some time to get my Display System series of blog articles started back up again. If only tiresome _ork would not take up so much of my day.